By borrowing symbols, colours, and repetitive marks from traditional Macedonian embroidery pieces made by my grandmothers, I have translated elements of a multigenerational practice into my own visual language. After months of drawing and analyzing embroidery designs, their shapes and lines began to come naturally to my hand and are now embedded in my work. These symbols are scattered across a composition resembling loose thread, as if they are simultaneously strung together and dispersing. The ghostliness of the suspended prints is a reminder of the loss that emanates from cultural dislocation and death, yet the arrangement allows viewers to be comfortably enveloped by the work.

Copper plates have a beautiful ability to transcribe traces of touch, displacement, and wounds, allowing each mark of their history to be intimately imprinted on paper. Drypoint lines are created by displacing metal to the surface of the plate and will break down after repeated pressure, so the resilience of copper as a material is juxtaposed by the ephemerality of my etchings.

My use of an etching needle mirrors the tools of my ancestors’ practices, a tool that is known to both wound and repair and symbolizes traditional domestic work. Although traditional embroidery techniques were not passed down to me, and a significant cultural shift occurred when my parents emigrated from their country of origin, the needle has manifested itself as a connection between generations.